LJ Idol - Week 15: Busman’s holiday
The music coming out of her phone speakers surprises me with its sound quality. She doesn’t have the volume up very high, but the brassy 80s beat comes through clearly, curling up into the cool dry evening air. Mir has kind of an off-kilter and eclectic taste in music, but so far on this trip we’ve been able to enjoy each-other’s tastes. Jimmy Buffett is belting out life lessons gleaned from matchbook covers:
Fly down to Miami
Get yourself a boat
Fill it full of suntan oil
And rent yourself a goat
The 80s were so over the top. It must have been strange beyond imagining to grow up in that decade. People today blame the excesses of those years for a litany of sins, but there are definitely people in the 2040s that look back on those times with nostalgia, too. I’m pretty sure my companion falls somewhere in the middle of those positions, but we’ve never discussed her childhood much. She didn’t climb as a kid so it doesn’t come up.
Mir is occasionally singing along. She has a slender cutting board balanced across her lap and she’s dicing an onion and a cucumber. Part of the onion goes into the pot balanced on her little canister stove. The stove sits on the big flat-topped red boulder that we’ve pulled our camp chairs up to. A blow-up LED solar lantern next to it provides the circle of cheery light we’re sitting in.
“I’ve only ever really had two jobs,” Miriam says. On some level this is a complete lie, and we both know it. I’ve seen her resume. Seen her digital footprints across the internet. But I can tell she is feeling expansive, as she takes another sip from the beer at her side. She’s ready to share some wisdom. And I am here to learn.
“Teaching and writing,” she continues. “Yeah, I know, few of my job titles were actually teacher or writer. But that’s what advising people boils itself down to if you’re doing a good job as in-house type counsel. You’re teaching them how the law should be applied to their decisions. And writing’s just essential no matter what one does. It can be the most efficient but also the most insightful way to get to someone.”
The tang of the onions mixed with the warmth of the oil smells delicious. We already discussed the balance between packing light and packing the things that make the trip worthwhile. I can tell that Mir enjoys a bit of food preparation ritual at the end of the day. I don’t usually savor this part of camping, especially when I’m working, because I favor the fast and light approach that doesn’t require cooking.
But Miriam isn’t out here for a big alpine push, devoting every last bit of energy to the physical. She worked hard today, and improved some techniques, and I showed her some routes she should be able to come back and lead when she can find other partners. At a little over 60, she isn’t my typical guiding client. But I’m also not really guiding this weekend. I mean, I am guiding, in that I’m the more experienced and proficient climber. At least in terms of routes climbed. True, Mir’s been climbing for forty years, but she also went months and sometimes years between outside trips for many of those years. She raised a family and practiced law and worked with an environmental agency, and that last point is why we arranged this trip.
Ain't no registration
Ain't no student loan
You may not learn to read or write
But you will surely learn to roll them bones
She tosses another handful of onions into the pan as she sings “roll them bones,” with a flourish, grabs a can of beans and a can opener and goes on.
“It’s been teaching and writing all the way down, the whole way along. And I’ve both loved and hated both jobs every step of the way,” she says.
“You are a very good teacher, Jim,” she tells me, “Guiding has given you that. In a small group environment you can definitely keep people on track.”
It’s a little uncomfortable to get feedback this direct, even when it’s positive, and I can tell it’s weird for her too, but she pushes along because the point of our trip today was a trade. She’s been a paying client in the past, but I offered to give her a day of climbing this week in exchange for her help a few months ago on my resume and interview preparation and now for her thoughts about the job they offered that I’m thinking of taking.
“The track can be a lot less clear in the meeting room than it is on the rock. Do you think you’ll still be able to enjoy it when the stakes aren’t safety and enjoying the outdoors but are the way environmental regulations are brought to bear? They’re both heavy responsibilities, but in different ways. Tell me which things you like the best about the program you would be working with.”
The dry Utah air stirs as I consider how to describe my favorite things about the Washington State position. Miriam hums along and then sings:
Oh there ain’t no graduation from this kind of education
Back to school
Fly down to Miami
Get yourself a boat
Fill it full of suntan oil
And rent yourself a goat
The 80s were so over the top. It must have been strange beyond imagining to grow up in that decade. People today blame the excesses of those years for a litany of sins, but there are definitely people in the 2040s that look back on those times with nostalgia, too. I’m pretty sure my companion falls somewhere in the middle of those positions, but we’ve never discussed her childhood much. She didn’t climb as a kid so it doesn’t come up.
Mir is occasionally singing along. She has a slender cutting board balanced across her lap and she’s dicing an onion and a cucumber. Part of the onion goes into the pot balanced on her little canister stove. The stove sits on the big flat-topped red boulder that we’ve pulled our camp chairs up to. A blow-up LED solar lantern next to it provides the circle of cheery light we’re sitting in.
“I’ve only ever really had two jobs,” Miriam says. On some level this is a complete lie, and we both know it. I’ve seen her resume. Seen her digital footprints across the internet. But I can tell she is feeling expansive, as she takes another sip from the beer at her side. She’s ready to share some wisdom. And I am here to learn.
“Teaching and writing,” she continues. “Yeah, I know, few of my job titles were actually teacher or writer. But that’s what advising people boils itself down to if you’re doing a good job as in-house type counsel. You’re teaching them how the law should be applied to their decisions. And writing’s just essential no matter what one does. It can be the most efficient but also the most insightful way to get to someone.”
The tang of the onions mixed with the warmth of the oil smells delicious. We already discussed the balance between packing light and packing the things that make the trip worthwhile. I can tell that Mir enjoys a bit of food preparation ritual at the end of the day. I don’t usually savor this part of camping, especially when I’m working, because I favor the fast and light approach that doesn’t require cooking.
But Miriam isn’t out here for a big alpine push, devoting every last bit of energy to the physical. She worked hard today, and improved some techniques, and I showed her some routes she should be able to come back and lead when she can find other partners. At a little over 60, she isn’t my typical guiding client. But I’m also not really guiding this weekend. I mean, I am guiding, in that I’m the more experienced and proficient climber. At least in terms of routes climbed. True, Mir’s been climbing for forty years, but she also went months and sometimes years between outside trips for many of those years. She raised a family and practiced law and worked with an environmental agency, and that last point is why we arranged this trip.
Ain't no registration
Ain't no student loan
You may not learn to read or write
But you will surely learn to roll them bones
She tosses another handful of onions into the pan as she sings “roll them bones,” with a flourish, grabs a can of beans and a can opener and goes on.
“It’s been teaching and writing all the way down, the whole way along. And I’ve both loved and hated both jobs every step of the way,” she says.
“You are a very good teacher, Jim,” she tells me, “Guiding has given you that. In a small group environment you can definitely keep people on track.”
It’s a little uncomfortable to get feedback this direct, even when it’s positive, and I can tell it’s weird for her too, but she pushes along because the point of our trip today was a trade. She’s been a paying client in the past, but I offered to give her a day of climbing this week in exchange for her help a few months ago on my resume and interview preparation and now for her thoughts about the job they offered that I’m thinking of taking.
“The track can be a lot less clear in the meeting room than it is on the rock. Do you think you’ll still be able to enjoy it when the stakes aren’t safety and enjoying the outdoors but are the way environmental regulations are brought to bear? They’re both heavy responsibilities, but in different ways. Tell me which things you like the best about the program you would be working with.”
The dry Utah air stirs as I consider how to describe my favorite things about the Washington State position. Miriam hums along and then sings:
Oh there ain’t no graduation from this kind of education
Back to school